


His Brother's Keeper

by koalathebear



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Angst, Family, Gen, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-04
Updated: 2013-10-04
Packaged: 2017-12-28 09:33:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/990463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My take on what caused the estrangement between the Hansen brothers.  It would have to be pretty serious for Herc to report his young brother.  I don't really dwell on the incident in question, but it's pretty clear what Scott has done.</p><p>I know it's rampant in this fandom, but just to be clear - there is no sex between the brothers here.  The non-con element is referring to what Herc discovers Scott has done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Brother's Keeper

Herc looks up in disgust as Scott walks in the room with his usual swagger, stinking of booze and cigarettes.

"It's about bloody time you got back – you missed the briefing."

"Just relax, old man," Scott tells him flippantly. 

"Don't call me that," Herc tells him grimly, genuine anger in his eyes. 

Sometimes he stares at his younger brother and wonders how the hell the two of them can possibly related. There is an unmistakeable physical similarity, though. The dark red hair, the blue eyes, the good-looking features. The resemblance ends there, though.

Scott has a swagger whereas Herc walks with a quiet confidence. Herc takes responsibility for his actions and does what he thinks is right. Scott just does whatever the fuck he wants to do at the time and leaves others to deal with the consequences.

_Look after Scott, Hercules – he's your responsibility._

As the older brother, Herc always feels like the parent in the relationship, a parent who has completely lost control of his child and knows it, watching on helplessly as his child staggers from one major fuck-up into another. Sometimes he isn't sure who's the bigger child, Scott Hansen or the young Chuck Hansen who is always simmering with anger and resentment towards his father. If Angela was still alive, she would have known how to handle Chuck. Scott on the other hand - no one knows how to handle him.

Herc and Scott had enrolled in the Academy for vastly different reasons. Herc had wanted to strike back at the monsters that had cost him the life of his wife and the mother of his child. He wanted to do his bit to defend the world and prevent other people suffering that way his family had. Scott made a lifestyle choice and unlike Herc, he was lapping up the fame and attention.

Each time they Drift, notwithstanding their technical Drift Compatibility, their minds are at odds – wary and suspicious of one another. Shared memories and experiences are perceived in very different ways and Scott is fully aware of his brother's disapproval and disappointment as much as Herc is aware of his brother's frustration and contempt for what he regards as Herc's stickler ways.

Herc stares at his brother's face in disgust. There are cuts and bruises on his face, his lip is split and puffy.

"You been in _another_ fight?" he demands in disbelief. "What was it this time? Forgot to repay your bookie?" It wouldn't be the first time that Scott's gambling ways have led to a beat down.

Scott shrugs carelessly. 

"Give it a rest, Herc. Doesn't it hurt to always have that stick up your ass?" he asks his brother contemptuously. He lifts a hand to touch his lip gingerly and part of Herc's mind notices the scratches on Scott's hands … pub brawls don't usually result in scratches. 

The thought is temporarily put aside as the klaxon sounds and they are summoned to the suiting area. 

Another kaiju has crawled its ugly ass out of the breach and needs to be killed.

*

Fighting is about the only time the two of them communicate perfectly. The Hansen brothers both love a good brawl and there is something cathartic about kicking the shit out of a kaiju. Thumping, punching and shooting it until it's dead. 

Herc never feels bad after he kills a kaiju. He feels a sense of exhilaration and grim satisfaction for a job well done. These monsters that dare to invade the earth and kill countless of innocent people have a lot to answer for.

He and his brother are largely silent as they fight, relying on their linked minds as they activate weapons, move forwards or backwards, throw a punch … 

At one point, he glances over at Scott and there is a sudden ripple in the Drift and Herc is almost blinded.

He no longer sees his brother in the Conn-Pod. Instead, he's in a small room and there's a young woman – she's little more than a girl. She's crying and screaming.

He watches helplessly.

Her head snaps back as a fist shoots out and clips her in the jaw before she is seized. 

“No—” Herc mutters aloud as he feels the pain of fingernails clawing at his hands defensively.

 _Please! No!_ The screaming is ringing in his head. He can taste blood in his mouth, feel anger rising inside him like a hot wave.

On the command mezzanine, the neural handshake display shows distortion. The two pilots’ minds are no longer in perfect union.

“Lucky Strike?” the officer in the LOCCENT demands warily as the Jaeger spasms and staggers.

Herc stares in horror at the young girl curled up in the corner of the room crying. The revulsion he feels makes him want to throw up. He can feel Scott's mind trying to push him away.

"They're both out of alignment!" the LOCCENT officer shouts in panic. An alarm is sounding as on the command mezzanine, the neural-handshake display exploded into visual noise.

He falls back into himself and stops chasing the rabbit. He gets himself under control just in time to seize control of Lucky Strike again, pulling it back from where it is about to drop off a steep incline. Scott's anger is palpable and although they remain connected, Herc's almost alone as he struggles to drag their Jaeger back to the Shatterdome.

*

"What the fuck was that all about? You almost got us both killed," Scott accuses, going on the attack first even though he knows what Herc has seen.

"Don't try to put it back on me, mate," Herc says coldly. "I know what you did."

"Oh please, give me a break," Scott tells him contemptuously. "She was gagging for it. You know what those Jaeger flies are like. Some of them just like it rough."

"What have you become?" Herc demands. He stares at his brother in undisguised horror. The little boy who used to follow him devotedly to school. The little brother he defended from the attacks of bullies.

"She won't tell anyone," Scott tells him defensively, a flicker of shame in his eyes.

Herc stares at him coldly. "Yeah but you are," he tells his brother. "I'll give you tomorrow, either you turn yourself in – or I'm reporting you."

"You'd never do that," Scott tells him with a smile. All their lives, Herc's looked out for him. Their parents made it Herc's job to care for his little brother. He's always been responsible for him and he's never not done the right thing.

"I'm serious Scott. You've got a chance to do the right thing, don't fuck it up."

Scott's face is contorted in anger. "Don't judge me. You have no right. You always stand there looking at me like that – like you think you're better or something.

Herc's face is filled with sorrow. "No, that's never been it …I'm not better, I just know what we have to try to do the right thing …" How did he let Scott become this monster? How is it possible for something like this to happen? Herc knows that he's let his parents down and for the first time, he thinks that it's a blessing that Donavan and Tess are dead so that they can't know what Scott has done.

*

Scott doesn't turn himself in. No surprises there. He stands and watches as his brother walks into the office of their commanding officer.

When Herc looks up, Scott's no longer there. Scott is dishonourably discharged but when the military police go to apprehend him, he's long gone.

The brothers never meet again although Herc sees Scott all the time in the Drift, in his own memories and in Chuck's. 

Chuck never asks about his uncle, he doesn't have to ask. Everything he needs to know is there in his father's head. All the guilt and shame that Scott doesn't feel hangs around Herc's neck like an ungainly albatross.

In the Conn-Pod of Striker Eureka, Herc glances over at his son and prays that he doesn't fail again.


End file.
